21 Shocking U.S. Food Waste Facts & Statistics – Infographic

We’ve all done it at one point or another: throwing away food because we forgot about it and it went bad, or because we bought too much and now it’s past its shelf life.

In fact, 40% of food in the United States is never eaten and $4 billion is wasted each year globally. Did you know the average American throws away well over 200 pounds of edible food each year? If we wasted just 15% less food, it would be enough to feed 25 million Americans annually. This Thanksgiving may be a good time to consider how many impoverished people could be fed with that food.

Once you get through the shocking facts in the infographic, provided by A to Z Solutions, learn about 8 opportunities to help reduce waste. We think there may be a few good business plans that can be brainstormed to address the crisis, and we hope agree it’s some interesting food for thought.

The Western Sustainability and Pollution Prevention Network (WSPPN) is a cooperative alliance of pollution prevention (P2) programs throughout EPA Region 9 (Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Trust Territories, and Tribal Lands). The network serves as a technical resource for regional P2 issues through researching, consolidating, and disseminating P2 information. WSPPN was established in 1997 and is run as a service provided by The Business Environmental Program (BEP) at the University of Nevada, Reno.